Peter's basket South-east title

A DETERMINED St. Peter's College team defeated tough opposition to win their first-ever regional basketball title, in the South East Under-19 'C' grade, in Monroe gym, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, on Tuesday last.

After convincing victories throughout their league campaign, St. Peter's qualified for the regional play-offs, and met Coláiste Pobal Oscraí of Kilkenny in the semi-final on Tuesday morning. With accurate shooting, and precision passing, the team eventually won the game with a scoreline of 51-19.

The team took a little while to settle down, but they quickly found their feet and began to play some excellent basketball.

There was some excellent rebounding from Cormac O'Rourke, Adam Reynolds and Ronan O'Donnell in particular, while Joseph Mahon and Ronan Jones helped SPC's dominance on offence. Cian Lambert (captain) was the MVP, and top scorer was Paddy O'Connor with 12 points.

St. Peter's qualified for the regional final against Avondale Community College at 2 p.m. This was an extraordianary match, full of excitement and tension.

Avondale started very strongly and overpowered both the offence and defence of St. Peter's to leave the Wexford side trailing by eleven points at one stage.

But St. Peter's were determined that they should be crowned the champions, and they worked tirelessly to get themselves back into the game.

Avondale could not maintain their strong early pace, and St. Peter's took advantage of this.

Eddie O'Byrne and Bill Eviston dominated the rebounds for the Wexford team, while Paddy O'Connor, Cian Lambert, David Gormley and MVP Andy Butler broke down the Avondale defence again and again, so that St. Peter's eventually won by 17 points! The final score was 47-30.

Congratulations to the hard-working St. Peter's Senior 'A' basketball team who are South East regional champions, and who now qualify for the AllIreland play-offs at the end of January.